It not just US culture. Liberalism was born in Europe. Locke put it into high minded abstract philosophy but before Locke there were so many people, all wealthy merchants who could afford printing press time, who would put out arguments that basically said “I have money but the king won’t let me buy land because he says it’s only for nobility with titles. Well fuck that! What about the nobility I earned through human trafficking?! I should have just as much power, or more even, then some inbred aristocrat!”
That was all over Europe. Hell, the wealthiest merchants even bought charters from kings to create their own cities and run them like liberal experiments, which is where a lot of liberal ideas and practices were incubated. The idea of fuck you money was a dream in the heads of European merchants and bankers for centuries.
The US is just an extension of Europe anyway, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise.
It not just US culture. Liberalism was born in Europe. Locke put it into high minded abstract philosophy but before Locke there were so many people, all wealthy merchants who could afford printing press time, who would put out arguments that basically said “I have money but the king won’t let me buy land because he says it’s only for nobility with titles. Well fuck that! What about the nobility I earned through human trafficking?! I should have just as much power, or more even, then some inbred aristocrat!”
That was all over Europe. Hell, the wealthiest merchants even bought charters from kings to create their own cities and run them like liberal experiments, which is where a lot of liberal ideas and practices were incubated. The idea of fuck you money was a dream in the heads of European merchants and bankers for centuries.
The US is just an extension of Europe anyway, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise.